Coming Up Rose
by erskine exposed
Summary: Rose Weasley's seven years in Gryffindor. Year One- Weasel, Meet Ferret: The beginning of a long and one-sided rivalry.


_This is a new series I'm thinking about. I haven't done a ton of Harry Potter fics before, but I love the books. Anyway, this is just an exploration through Rose Weasley's years at Hogwarts. Ideally, I'd like to do 28 chapters total, one for each year in each house. We'll see if that actually works out. This will probably just be the home of Gryffindor!Rose, but details are hazy. Enough jabbering, on to the story!_

_But first, a disclaimer! I do not own Harry Potter. At all._

**Title:** Year One-Weasel, Meet Ferret  
><strong>Summary:<strong> The beginning of a long and one-sided rivalry.

* * *

><p>Yes, Rose Weasley was going to beat Scorpius Malfoy into the ground today. The metaphorical ground, that is.<p>

As was tradition (one most likely started by a Head Master with an off-color sense of humor) rather unorthodox matches had been made when splitting first years into their respective Potions and Herbology classes.

Gryffindors and Slytherins sat strictly segregated in the dungeon classroom. No notes, no conversation, no glances crossed the aisle separating the two houses. Well, except for the efforts of one, Albus Potter.

For the last five minutes, he had been trying to attract his cousins' attention, but it seemed his silver and green tie rendered him invisible more effectively than his father's cloak.

For her part, Rose Weasley had noticed Albus's increasingly frantic attempts to capture her attention, but her eleven-year-old mind was singularly focused. She must wallop Malfoy in the exam today, or her life would be over. Her father had made her promise to beat him at every test, and Rose Weasley was nothing if not determined. So, she continued to ignore Albus, and conversed with Roxanne, her (their) cousin. This was made more difficult by Rox's pointed glances in Albus's direction, and her insistence that Rose pay attention to him before he fell out of his chair.

Fed up with the commotion Albus was causing in the class, she whipped around, her long braid nearly smacking Roxanne in the face.

"_What_ could you possibly want, Albus? You're lucky Professor Slughorn isn't here yet. I was trying to study for the test we will be taking in a few minutes," she hissed, fully aware that every person in the room was now listening intently to the conversation.

"You were just talking to Rox—"

"Yes, well, I was revising with her," she snapped.

"Right," Albus drawled, sounding far too old for his eleven years. Seeing Rose purse her lips in disapproval, Albus got to the point, "I need to switch partners."

Rose narrowed her eyes, attempting to gauge Albus's motives. Deciding there was no harm in working with Albus for one test, she looked to Roxanne, who looked at her a little more intently than usual. Turning back to their desperate cousin, Rose gave a sharp nod.

Albus swept his parchment and quill into his bag, and scurried over to the table where his savior sat.

Rose settled into her seat, a feeling of superiority washing over her. She was glad her Slytherin cousin had finally acknowledged that Gryffindor was the better house. Why else would he be needing her help when she was sure someone from his own house would be willing to help him.

Imagine, then, her surprise when Albus placed his bag right in front of her. She peered up at him, and raised a brow. He looked a little sheepish but stood awkwardly next to her chair. Then, it hit her. Albus expected _her_, Rose Weasley, to move so he could work with Roxanne!

She was just opening her mouth to object when Rox jumped in, "You don't mind, do you, Rose? It's just that Al asked me to help him study for this test, and now we can help each other through it."

Rose's brow furrowed. Why hadn't they asked her to study with them? She was sure that she could have been very helpful, if only given the chance, and said as much.

Roxanne shrugged, never much for empathy, and Albus looked merely uncomfortable, knowing his cousin would have helped, but would also have been insufferable about it.

"Well, next time we will ask for your help, but for today, would you mind if I worked with Roxanne?"

The reconciliatory tone of his voice and the look in his eye did nothing to garner Rose's favor, though. She did not need to be taken care of; she handled herself perfectly well on her own. Set on proving to Albus that she did not need him or Roxanne—and really, she didn't. She already had the highest marks in the class—she packed away her potions kit and moved to his abdicated seat.

Halfway there, however, Rose's mind fully comprehended who was sitting at that same table.

Scorpius Malfoy.

Her (unofficial) arch-nemesis.

She didn't dwell on the fact that he could hardly warrant the title of arch-nemesis if she didn't take enough notice of him to see that he was sitting with her cousin at the beginning of class. She chalked it up to the fact that she had been too focused on beating the pants off of him, to notice where in the room he was. Rose spun around and marched back to Albus and Roxanne. Before she could get there, however, Professor Slughorn swept into the room.

Upon seeing her, he exclaimed, "Ah, Miss Weasley! Not in your usual place today, I see. Well, just take the open seat next to Mr. Malfoy, and we shall begin."

Not wishing to openly argue with a professor, Rose turned back to her doom and sat down with as much dignity as possible. Her apparent composure was ruined by the fact that she sat as close as possible to the far edge of her stool in order to maintain maximum distance from Malfoy.

"All right, class. As you all know, there is to be an exam today on the Forgetfulness Potion," Professor Slughorn began. "However, there was an unfortunate accident in the supply closet due to some mischief by the third years," At this, he shot a glance at Al who slouched in his seat. Rose knew for a fact that James Potter, as well as various cousins and attachés were behind that particular prank. "So, we don't have quite enough ingredients for everyone to make their own potions. Now, now, don't get too excited, we will still have the test on the Forgetfulness Potion! You'll just have to work with whomever is sitting with you!"

Professor Slughorn sounded so very enthused by this idea, and most of the class seemed to agree. Al was sitting a little straighter, the look of near terror on his face was replaced by a certain uneasiness. He never was the most confident member of the family. That was Rose.

And yet, where her classmates were already moving to collect ingredients and taking out their knives, Rose was glued to the spot, unable and unwilling to comprehend Slughorn's directions. There was no way that she could work with Malfoy. First, he would probably try to sabotage her work, and then blame her for any problem with the potion, and second, there wasn't a way to beat him if they were going to work together and receive the same score, so she couldn't sabotage his work and blame him; she would fail, too. It was certainly quite the conundrum.

While Rose was trying to figure her way out of her puzzling situation, Scorpius set about quietly and efficiently gathering the supplies for their potion. He may have been eleven, but he wasn't dense. He could practically feel the animosity rolling off of the Weasley girl. All he wanted to do was brew the potion, get their marks, and run as far away from her as possible.

Finally, after all the ingredients were neatly piled on their worktable, Rose came to a decision and whipped to face her would-be nemesis. "Listen, Malfoy. I don't like working with you any more than you like working with me," she hissed, beginning to furiously hack away at dandelion roots.

Scorpius was bewildered to say the least. He didn't mind working with Weasley, though he was likely to change his mind if she kept acting this barmy. Deciding that remaining silent would be the best option, Scorpius took the mangled dandelions and stirred them into the concoction.

Rose's eyes narrowed. Malfoy was not acting like a proper archrival. Rivals were supposed to trade banter and repartee, not sullen silences. She was frustrated. At every turn, Scorpius would foil her attempts to instigate a rivalry with his general apathy. But today, today, she would succeed, Merlin curse it!

"What? Think you're too good to answer me?" Rose asked, trying to get a rise out of him. When she was met with more placid preparation of their potion, she wanted to hex him then and there. She was just beginning to draw a breath to launch into a scathing verbal attack when she noticed Professor Slughorn's approach. In a flurry, she was chopping and dicing, determined to impress the Potions Master.

Slughorn paused at their work table and offered a few words of praise for their potion. Rose fairly glowed at his compliment, nearly forgetting that the professor wasn't praising only her work, but Malfoy's, too. She happily settled back into preparing the ingredients until she realized she was being stared at.

"May I help you?" she snarled at the faintly terrified boy sitting next to her.

Scorpius shook his head, perhaps a little too eagerly, and turned back to stirring the simmering potion counter-clockwise. The brew bubbled sedately and began to turn a pleasing yellow. He picked up the last ingredient, snake tongues, and was about to drop them into the mixture, when he was interrupted by a petite, yet somehow terrifying eleven-year-old.

"What are you doing?" she screeched, her eyes wide in horror. She could just see the "T" on their potion, now.

Seeing no alternative, he slowly replied, "Adding the snake tongues in."

"I can see that," she scoffed, "but _why_ are you adding the snake tongues in? You're supposed to stir counter-clockwise thirty times first." Her voice had taken on an insufferable and bossy tone. It was abundantly clear that she believed herself infinitely superior to him.

"I did stir it counter-clockwise," he ground out, beginning to feel his calm edge away.

"You did not! I would have noticed!"

"Well, I did. It's not my fault you weren't paying attention," he snapped. Scorpius was sick of Rose after only one period as her partner.

"Are you calling me a liar, Malfoy?" Her eyes were narrowed, and Scorpius noted that her grip on her knife was turning her knuckles white.

"I am certainly not. I only said that you couldn't be induced to pay any attention to your potion because you're a dumb Weasel!" He didn't think before he said it, a drawback to being an eleven-year-old boy. It wasn't even a particularly hurtful insult, but Rose was willing to take offense to anything Malfoy said.

She didn't even think to draw her wand. Rather, Rose retaliated with her fist, unwittingly reenacting a moment from twenty-three years earlier.

Immediately, there was an uproar. Scorpius wheeled back, even though Rose was positive she hadn't hit him _that_ hard. Slughorn descended upon them and demanded to know what was going on.

Scorpius stretched out his jaw, rubbing it tenderly and Rose couldn't help but snort in disgust. One of the Slytherins, Pete Hopkins, piped up, "Weasley decked Malfoy, Professor!"

Rose glared at the tattletale before defending herself. "He was provoking me, Professor!"

Slughorn raised a hand to quiet the class and said, "Regardless, this type of violence is not to be allowed, Miss Weasley. Forty points from Gryffindor." When Rose looked like she would protest, he simply rose a brow, effectively quieting her. "Now, Mister Malfoy, why don't you go off to the infirmary and see about getting that bruise fixed up. Everyone else, there are ten minutes left to finish your Forgetfulness Potion."

Conversations grew as pairs began to resume their work. Malfoy simply gathered up his supplies and shoved them in his bag before hazarding a peek at Weasley. She was glaring balefully at the table, and he could tell she wouldn't finish their potion. Risking her wrath, Scorpius dropped the forgotten snake tongues into the brew before veritably sprinting from the dungeons.

His safety precautions went unnoticed by his former partner, though. She sat in her own bubble of misery for the next ten minutes. Rose couldn't believe that her first major altercation with her arch-rival had gone so poorly. Sure, she had sent him to the hospital, but at the cost of forty points for Gryffindor. Next time, she would have to plan better and make sure there was no staff around.

Her plotting was interrupted by Professor Slughorn. "Ah, Miss Weasley, it's nice to see that you finished such a lovely potion, even with the ruckus from earlier," he exclaimed before moving on.

Rose was perplexed, she had not finished the potion. It still needed to be stirred and have the snake tongues added. Yet, when she looked, the potion was an intense, sunshine yellow, just as the potions book described. Malfoy must have added the snake tongues before he left, but there was no way he could have stirred the brew and added the ingredients without her noticing. That meant that he had been right all along and she had not paid attention. Malfoy was the only reason she passed this test!

_Stupid Malfoy! He's such a little ferret, Circe curse him! He just had to go and prove that he was the smarter one! Well, I'll show him!_

If there was one thing Rose Weasley hated more than anything, it was being proven wrong, and Malfoy had done just that. It wasn't so bad, though; she had six more years to pay him back.

* * *

><p><em>Hmm... What did you think? Whether you loved it, hated it, or thought it was just silly, let me know and review!<em>

_erskine exposed  
><em>


End file.
